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(New York City) New York Medical College, in Westchester County just north of New York City, has banned a group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students on campus.
NYMC is a a private Catholic college affiliated with the Archdiocese of New York.
At the beginning of this academic year, the LGBT student group, previously called the “Student Help” organization, changed its name to the “NYMC Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender People in Medicine.”
The new name, the students said, is consistent with many other “LGBTPM” groups associated with the American Medical Students Association, which itself has a national LGBT People in Medicine caucus.
But, after the NYMC student group changed its name, NYMC’s administration revoked the group’s charter. Unlike other student groups, the group will not receive funding, may not use space on campus for its activities, and may not use the college’s e-mail system.
In a notice to the group, the administration and the Student Senate said that the removal of the charter was based on the LGBT group’s wanting “to promote the lifestyle of GLBT people in conflict with the standards and values of the College.”
The Student Senate noted that the group’s activities, particularly the group’s proposed Coming Out Day, “would be in conflict with the Catholic Church.”
“To construe “promotion” of a homosexual lifestyle via a Coming Out Day event certainly requires a stretch of imagination when our stated goal was increasing awareness and fostering dialogue among students,” said
Joshua Sahara, the NYMC second-year student who had been elected president of the group before it was banned.
Sahara noted that the language of the proposed Coming Out Day events stated that “emphasis will be on education and discussion and fostering a comfortable dialogue among students.
“I’m concerned that the representation and interpretation of our goals and objectives is severely distorted and misconstrued by the Administration, and thus communicated inaccurately,” Sahara said.
The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association Tuesday publicly decried the decision to ban the group.
In a letter to NYMC Dean Ralph O’Connell, Joel Ginsberg, GLMA’s Executive Director, noted a companion document to the The Healthy People report commissioned by the US Department of Health and Human Services, documents a number of health disparities experienced by LGBT persons as a result of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
"Many of these disparities are associated with the fear or outright discrimination LGBT persons experience when they reveal their sexual orientation or gender identity to their healthcare providers," Ginsberg's letter stated. "To reinforce this destructive attitude in medical education and to model it for medical students perpetuates this fear and discrimination against LGBT people generally.”
O'Connell's office has confirmed receipt of the letter, but the dean has not responded.
"We are concerned that the leadership of New York Medical College does not seem to recognize the gravity of this issue," Ginsberg said Tuesday.
He pointed to the Standards of Accreditation of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the national organization that accredits medical schools, which says: "In the admissions process and throughout medical school, there should be no discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, age, race, creed, or national origin."
"While these standards are not legally binding," Ginsberg said, "they state clearly the moral imperative of each medical school to work against discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
Dr. Jane Petro, a former President of the Board of GLMA and a tenured faculty member at NYMC said that the school is out of step with medical education today.
We are the only medical school in New York that does not have an LGBT student group," Pero said.
"The law of New York state and Westchester County opposes discrimination based on sexual orientation. There is clear evidence that LGBT people have unique health needs and concerns, and it makes sense to address these in medical school training. Further, the university’s actions underscore that this is not a safe place to be out, so there’s all the more reason for a student group to support LGBT students.”
©365Gay.com 2004
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